The present invention relates to a method for making thin, non-yeast leavened food products from waxy barley cultivars.
With growing consumer demands for foods with improved nutritional value, barley is gaining renewed interest as a food crop. Barley contains several components, most notably xcex2glucan, dietary fibre, and tocopherols which have been reported to have desirable healthful benefits. Recommendations to consume high fibre, high complex carbohydrate diets in order to reduce cholesterol levels could be achieved through the consumption of barley based food products.
However, when barley flour is used to fully or partially replace wheat flour in many cereal based food products, undesirable effects in the final product are often observed. These undesirable effects often include problems with product texture (increased gumminess) and product colour. For example, Berglund et al (Berglund et al, 1992, Cereal Foods World 37:707-714) found poor product volume and color in pan bread (26% barley flour) and muffins (70% barley flour) and poor color in spice bars (100% barley flour). Similarly, Klamczynski and Czuchajowska (Klamczynski and Czuchajowska, 1999, Cereal Chem 76:530-535) observed poor volume in quick breads made from either 20% waxy or nonwaxy barley flour with 80% wheat flour. This is because properties such as high xcex2-glucan, fibre and water absorption and low gluten and amylose may negatively affect processing and textural quality in some food products. As discussed herein, these properties may in fact be beneficial for production of thin, non-yeast leavened food products, for example, tortillas, tacos, chips and the like.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide thin, non-yeast leavened food products made from barley flour from barley cultivars with waxy starch properties.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of producing a non-yeast leavened product comprising: providing a quantity of barley flour from a barley cultivar having low ( less than 10%) amylose content; combining the barley flour with other ingredients to produce dough; and preparing the thin, non-yeast leavened food product from the dough.
The barley cultivar may be selected from the group consisting of CDC Alamo, Shina Waju, CDC Candle, SB 94917 and SB 93977. As will be apparent to one knowledgeable in the art, other low amylose cultivars are also suitable.
The barley flour may be milled flour.